


second time

by exhaustedwerewolf



Series: 30 Day Post Challenge [2]
Category: The Shapeshifter & Unleashed - Ali Sparkes
Genre: F/M, Post-Feather & Fang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 17:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8455822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exhaustedwerewolf/pseuds/exhaustedwerewolf
Summary: At the end of the day, they're just kids running from the government.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "second time"

**“We go south,” said Dax. “It’ll take us a few days- walking and bussing maybe.”**

The second time is different.

The soft roar of the traffic, dull and somehow distant even to Dax's sensitive hearing, the smudged amber glow of streetlights sliding behind the flimsy curtains, illuminating the raindrops adorning the window like tiny gemstones. Lisa’s legs stretched across his lap, her expensive running shoes dangling in the aisle. Lisa’s hair, pale grey in the darkness, the curve of it against her neck. The even rise and fall of her chest. Dax is disoriented with the peculiar heavy-headedness of prolonged travel and normally, on a bus full of strangers, he'd be jumpy and alert. But his pulse thrums steadily in his wrist, and no matter how much the mistrustful parts of him worries, Dax Jones cannot take his eyes off the girl in the seat beside him.

A siren warbles, impossibly far away.

“Lees.” He barely whispers, hardly moves his mouth, but her eyes open slowly, and he can tell from her expression or maybe the turn of her thoughts, that she knows what he’s been thinking about for the past twenty minutes.

So, he goes ahead and kisses her before she can tease him about it. (In all honesty, he’s been thinking about kissing Lisa for a lot longer than twenty minutes.)

They meet. And it still feels like flying.

This is an unbearably cheesy thought, and to his embarrassment, Lisa catches that one too- he feels her smile against his lips.

He pulls back after a few heartbeats, and looks at her. He tilts his head and feels the coach seat digging into his back, and the weight of Lisa’s legs, and he doesn't feel like running. Or maybe now they are running, and that’s why his insides don't feel like they’ve just been stuffed into a blender for the first time in months. Or maybe he's just tired. Exhausted, even.

But, kissing Lisa still feels like flying. Not in the startling, head-spinning, heart-soaring, kind of way that left your throat dry and your pulse pounding. Kissing Lisa reminds him of coasting above the cliffs at Tregarren, the blue coolness of the atmosphere, the sunlight playing across the waves. When he kisses Lisa, his head is as clear as the Cornish midsummer skies, if only for a moment. He wonders if it was the same for her, is half considering asking her when-

 _Was it you first kiss?_ Lisa sends, and her gaze doesn't falter, but Dax could imagine her glancing askance, fiddling determinedly with some expensive piece of jewellery.

 _What?_ He blinks, startled. The bus turns a corner and he's leant awkwardly into her. She waits until he has recovered his posture before she elaborates.

 _Before I left._ She knows the answer. Unbidden, another memory surfaces; he's not sure if it's for both of them- river water and murky darkness and fear, enveloping, engulfing fear, and then, surprising him, she adds, _I’m sorry. About the trip. You were right._ Dax does look away.

_I was being paranoid._

_You were right to be paranoid, then. And I... shouldn’t have kissed you right before I went._

Dax physically shakes his head, and Lisa huffs through her nose, amused.

 _It was a good kiss._ This is a criminal understatement, and Lisa knows it. Her grin is pearly white in the fuzzy greyness.

_You weren't so bad yourself, foxy._

_Shut up,_ Dax sends, embarrassed again, before he can think better of it. She raises her eyebrows. _Sorry. I didn't mean- I meant-_

 _You shut up._ Lisa replies, leaning forward and placing a finger on Dax's lips, rather unnecessarily, since he hasn't said a word.

"Dax Jones," she barely breathes. "You think too much."

The third time is different.


End file.
